Swimmin’.

We got us some retard dogs.

Labrador Retrievers are supposed to be genetically predisposed to bound into the water and swim and and retrieve. Right?

Not Cutter and Tug. No way.

I’ve tried to get them to retrieve something, anything, for a long while now and it usually goes something like this- I’ll take the two of them into the yard and make them sit and let ’em know it’s Training Time. Then I’ll take a new toy or ball or whatever and toss it across the yard. Cutter will race for it, pick it up, shake the life out of it and start back to me. Tug will just sit, eyeing his brother, thinking what a suck-up he is and waiting to attack him. When Cutter gets about half way back with the toy Tug will launch and run him down and they’ll both wrestle and growl and carry on and then they’ll trot over for a biscuit leaving the toy behind. I’ll walk out and retrieve the toy, get them to come to me and toss it again but by then they’re thoroughly bored with the whole thing and they’ll just sit and stare at me.

Them’s my boys.

Then, the swimming. They are four years old and have never actually swam in the ocean. They’ll run through the water chasing each other but that’s about it. We’ll walk the beach watching all the other Labs swimming and retrieving and Cutter and Tug just bound around peeing on everything like retards cut loose for a day. We’ve tried to convince people that they’re special hybrids, a science experiment gone sadly awry. Labs that don’t swim. Jeez.

But then, last weekend, something happened. For whatever reason, Tug suddenly turned and pounded into the waves and went SWIMMING. Cutter pranced around back and forth in the shore break trying to figure out what had gotten into his littermate. When Tug finally returned Cutter pounced on him and chased him up the beach. But he SWAM! I’m hopin’ that Cutter will join him this weekend and then we’ll just have the pesky retrieving thing to clear up.

Maybe they won’t be retards forever.